[SPEAKER_00]: Romans chapter eight, let's turn to Romans chapter eight.
[SPEAKER_00]: But before I do, I mean, last week was awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wasn't not, I mean, I was so blessed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me just say that because as a pastor and as a just representing the staff, we were so satisfied and so thrilled to be able to worship the risen King with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That weekend was incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Were we tired?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: On Monday, yes, three services on Friday, and four on Sunday.
[SPEAKER_00]: The funny thing when we were planning out Friday, we decided, hey, let's try a noon hour service.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we'd never done that before.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just, let's try it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were thinking maybe 50 to 100 people would come.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the biggest service.
[SPEAKER_00]: Over 400 people came to the noon service.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys have spoken, I don't think we're ever going back, we're going to have a noon service on Friday.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fantastic.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was so amazing to worship the risen, well, you know, the crucified Christ and the risen Christ that we can't.
[SPEAKER_00]: On Sunday morning just to let you know there was.
[SPEAKER_00]: over 1800 people come on those first those four services and 59 stood in response to the message that we're following up.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it just praise the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: God has, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we got answered a lot of our prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now we pray for these new, new, newfound faith because these people are targets of the enemy because he wants to discourage and knock them down and just try to eliminate the faith and
[SPEAKER_00]: They need to stand.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we want to pray for them, we want to encourage them when we see them, hopefully many of them are going to the 11 o'clock foundations class, because that's going to really help lay the foundation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even if you guys are interested, you should think about going to that class, pack it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a good foundation so that we can build on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, we're on mission, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like, why do we talk about numbers?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do I mention that 1800 people came in, 59 stood up?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the great commission go ye into all the world and disciple the nations has numbers included in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's supposed to keep reaching further and further out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even in the city, if you're on mission, you want to see the gospel of Jesus Christ, push back the darkness, and for other people to bow the knee for Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Numbers are included in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's why we talk about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know that we have, we're planning one more build out on this property, which will max it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And our auditorium is going to hold 750.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the rate we're going, we might max that out pretty quickly.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the thing is, the whole vision is not to gather everybody to this location.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the gather, train, and then scatter, and send out.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are going to send out a lot more churches.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to plan a lot more churches.
[SPEAKER_00]: If the Lord gives us time and resources, we're going to keep giving it out and watch what the Lord does.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the thing is, for us to carry out this mission, we need everybody, we need an army.
[SPEAKER_00]: to stand up, trained, which is why I want you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I encourage you to be a part of those Institute classes whenever they are offered.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you get a chance to go, please go.
[SPEAKER_00]: And whenever you can, take the field guide and walk someone through in discipleship, I want you to do that this year because the field guide, path to discipleship, page 15 and following.
[SPEAKER_00]: All you have, it's already made discipleship study.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to take someone through it this year, because can you imagine if all of us stood up as an army ready and equipped to go out in Jesus' name?
[SPEAKER_00]: You haven't seen nothing yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, God will work in credible ways in your life, and then in this city.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I want to see more than anything that we would see a movement of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: which will, we need all of us to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need all of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we're back to Romans.
[SPEAKER_00]: So go back to Romans chapter eight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans chapter eight.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are in the book of Romans because, well, Paul wrote this long book, because the longest letter he ever wrote, and it was to the capital city of the empire in Rome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christians there and he deals with a lot of doctrine.
[SPEAKER_00]: He clarifies a lot of important Christian doctrine.
[SPEAKER_00]: The reason why I came to this book the study it is because we have a lot of new people since 2020.
[SPEAKER_00]: and we sent out 200 of our own to plant redemption city.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which means there's a lot of people here new, a lot of different beliefs, and I thought, well let's go to Book of Romans so I can clarify what the Bible says about important topics, because I want to bring unity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, yes, doctrine can divide, but it also is to unify.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's go in that direction.
[SPEAKER_00]: How about we go in that direction?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me read it now, starting with verse 18.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to go actually back up a little bit for 16.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get some context.
[SPEAKER_00]: The spirit, himself, bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if children, then heirs.
[SPEAKER_00]: Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: For I consider that the suffering of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: For the creation waits with eager longing
[SPEAKER_00]: for the creation was subjected to fertility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: For we know that the whole creation has been growning together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who had the first fruits of the spirit, there it is, grown inwardly, as we wait eagerly for the adoption of sons, the redemption of our bodies, for in this hope we are saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now hope that is seen as not hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: for who hopes for what he sees.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
[SPEAKER_00]: We wait for it with patience.
[SPEAKER_00]: My title is called, awaiting full redemption.
[SPEAKER_00]: awaiting full redemption.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you may ask, well, as Christians aren't we already redeemed?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and then you ask, well, then why this full redemption?
[SPEAKER_00]: What does that supposed to mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what it means, let's have to review a little bit believers at the moment of faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are justified, meaning they are declared to be righteous.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it secures us all the way to the through the final day of judgment, so that no condemnation can ever come to a believer, Romans 8, 1, 2, 4.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have nothing to fear since we are part of God's family, adopted children, Romans 8, 15, and 16.
[SPEAKER_00]: Full redemption, however, is future, Romans 8, 23, which I read.
[SPEAKER_00]: John Piper says that this way, you are already adopted, but not yet fully.
[SPEAKER_00]: Already redeemed, but not yet, finally,
[SPEAKER_00]: When we are given new bodies, and this is where Piper calls the consummation of redemption, like the finality of it, where resurrection of our bodies, glorification, and the renewal of all creation is going to happen at once.
[SPEAKER_00]: The redemption of our bodies means the completion of our adoption, the full salvation
[SPEAKER_00]: The best is yet to come, folks.
[SPEAKER_00]: The best is yet, you haven't seen anything yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: The best is yet to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: But waiting includes suffering.
[SPEAKER_00]: Waiting includes suffering.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's point number one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And verse 17 introduces the suffering into this section.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we will be glorified, if we're going to be completed,
[SPEAKER_00]: redemption and adoption, it's going to travel down the path of suffering.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for those of you who made new professions of faith, I don't want to misrepresent this thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your suffering is not over, you're not exempt, actually it's just beginning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, to be clear, some of the suffering that you have experienced is from addictions, it's from habits of sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's going to fade away.
[SPEAKER_00]: That pain is going to fade away.
[SPEAKER_00]: That suffering is going to fade.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when you identify with Jesus Christ, all of the suffering that was aimed at Him and His followers, well, you're a follower.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's coming to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are we talking about?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Jesus died.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Apostles, every one of them were martyred except one, John, who was banished on an island called Patness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you have Paul, he was stoned to death, they thought he was dead, he got back up, kept going.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they finally put him down too, in Rome.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then later, I mean, there's a lot of martyrdoms that went on, especially in the early, the first centuries, lots of martyrdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think of William Tindale in the 1500s, who translated the Greek New Testament into English, into the vernacular, and he was put to death for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was a no-no, he wasn't supposed to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was put to death.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second Timothy 312, here's a real encouraging verse
[SPEAKER_00]: Indeed, all who desire to live God the in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will be excluded from business circles, friendships, even family members who can't stand what you represent, you'll be sneered at and ridiculed.
[SPEAKER_00]: The suffering that Paul is talking about, though, includes several things, though, not just persecution, but I think of the pain of putting sin to death.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh you will live, that putting to death some of the longings and the desires that are in you, that are contrary to God, that is suffering.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you don't gratify that, you're going to suffer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, suffering would come in, like, when you're helping people, when you're helping taking, pushing your own needs aside to help lift someone else up, you are suffering.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you're not attending to yourself, you're putting some of your stress and strains away so that you can care for someone else.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is suffering.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just the aches and pains of our bodies, the illnesses that come.
[SPEAKER_00]: the degradation that comes to the human body.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's part of the suffering that Paul is talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: You say, John, how do you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because he's talking about creation, groaning, and that is groaning over the decaying corruption of the world around this creation.
[SPEAKER_00]: So certainly, our bodies, part of the created order, it's decaying.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's definitely included in what Paul is talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: persecution, but the thing that Paul wants to bring out is that the glories that are to come aren't even comparable to what we suffer.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't equal out.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't earn this glory later by the things you suffer because the suffering is so small and comparison.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he's saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: It outweighs it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The glory outweighs it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think of
[SPEAKER_00]: another missionary that was put to death, Jim Elliott, in the 1960s, Jim Elliott and Elizabeth Elliott were missionaries to Ecuador.
[SPEAKER_00]: They went down there to a primitive tribe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And already, you know, you're leaving the state, you're leaving your family behind.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when things turn out horribly wrong, when you're not rewarded by God for bravery,
[SPEAKER_00]: because Jim was speared to death at age 28.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's Elizabeth left with a small child.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she stayed, she stayed on the mission field.
[SPEAKER_00]: Was it foolish for them to go to this primitive tribe?
[SPEAKER_00]: and put their life at risk, not to gym.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jim is probably noted for this statement more than any other statement.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, he is no fool to lose what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess I said that again.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is no fool to lose what he cannot keep his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: To gain what he cannot lose his redemption.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, he's gonna risk it all for the cause of Christ to get it out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Elizabeth, who now is single, trying to raise a young daughter, she stays on the mission field and to reach this primitive tribe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it ends up, you know, the gospel spreads into that tribe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And an amazing way.
[SPEAKER_00]: But she stays.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why does she stay?
[SPEAKER_00]: She says,
[SPEAKER_00]: And I quote about suffering, there is, in fact, no redemptive work done anywhere without suffering.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: You wanna be a help to anyone?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna suffer.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is, in fact, no redemptive work done.
[SPEAKER_00]: anywhere without suffering.
[SPEAKER_00]: And also here at what she says, God is God, and if he is God, he is worthy of my worship and my service.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even staying on the mission field, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: I will find rest nowhere, but in his will.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's good.
[SPEAKER_00]: She wrote a book about the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's called Shadow of the Almighty.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you'll notice that she's referencing Psalm 91 that we are under the protective hand and covering of God, yet her husband perished.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's saying a God who is kind and loving, but even though her husband is gone,
[SPEAKER_00]: shadow of the Almighty.
[SPEAKER_00]: Waiting includes suffering for every one of us that believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And number two, the creation is eagerly waiting.
[SPEAKER_00]: The creation is eagerly waiting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, verse 19, it says, for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: for the creation was subjected to fertility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now and not only the creation but we ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, the creation, what's wrong with the creation?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's groaning under decay and the corruption.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where did that come from?
[SPEAKER_00]: The creation is connected to mankind.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Adam and Eve sinned, it affected the entire created order.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can see it in the catastrophic hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, even the moth that eat trees and then create this dead forest that which then get set ablaze by some lightning bolt, or the microscopic bacteria and deadly viruses.
[SPEAKER_00]: All that is part of the decay and the corruption of the world around.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the creation is groaning, it says, Paul says, under the strain of that corruption.
[SPEAKER_00]: How did that happen?
[SPEAKER_00]: God did it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Genesis 370.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what it says.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to Adam, God said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten the tree, which I commanded you, you should not eat of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Curse is the ground because of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole creation is cursed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Curse does the ground because of you and pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life, thorns and fissiles, it shall bring forth for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all connected to the fall of mankind, into sin, so that when we are fully redeemed, fully adopted, given new bodies, guess what the creation will also get new clothes.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's gonna be renewed.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all connected.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the creation doesn't grow like we grown under the strain.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul is personifying it, but showing that it serves like this great anticipation for the climax of God's redemptive work.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, we get a foretaste of that every spring.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't we?
[SPEAKER_00]: Of what it might look like?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the grass is the deepest green it'll ever be.
[SPEAKER_00]: All year, the flowers are brilliant right now, better than they ever will be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, I mean, you see that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Out of the dead cold winter comes this gorgeous spring color and vibrancy and life coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: And can you imagine what it will be like when death and decay thorns and thistles will be no more?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's beautiful now, but this whole creation is going to return to a garden.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be gorgeous with no obstructions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I think it's beautiful now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can remember, and I love getting out and seeing national parks and things like this, when we're planning which one to go to this summer, haven't picked it yet, I'm taking suggestions, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I remember,
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember a hike I was on in high school.
[SPEAKER_00]: We went up this lake called Lake Caroline, and we got there around six p.m. so it was about dinner time, and the sun was going behind the mountains, which were high, and we said to ourselves, because it was clear out, it was beautiful, we said.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's hit the ridge.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see the sunset.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we booked it as fast as we could to the top of this ridge and looked over.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was most incredible sight I'd ever seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: You had these beams of red and orange, just blazing up behind this distant mountain.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was just this glow of orange and red hitting you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll never forget, but you turn around to go back down, and on this side is blue and purple sky with our full moon.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so on the descent, it was like daytime.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were going all the way back down to the lake.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was just magical.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think this world is corrupt.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has a curse on it, and it looks like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: What will it be when the curse is lifted?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's groaning now, but you wait.
[SPEAKER_00]: It waits for the freedom that comes in the revealing of the sons of God because it all happens at one time.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And right now, the whole creation is groaning like a mom under the pains of childbirth.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a great illustration, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because there's meaning in the pain,
[SPEAKER_00]: Good things are coming, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, my two granddaughters, or my two daughters.
[SPEAKER_00]: are pregnant and they're ready to go in May, Megan.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Lauren, in August, and I can't wait.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't wait.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so exciting.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know that there is discomfort, you know, when you're carrying a baby that long and you're ready to drop off the extras on the side.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the pains of childbirth are getting more intense just before the baby arrives.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's all worth it when the baby is placed in your arms.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we anticipate something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Though it might be painful, it might be incumbering one day, one day, it's coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we wait, this is a third point, we wait with holy discontentment, holy discontentment.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like to call it that, holy discontentment.
[SPEAKER_00]: The most contentment is something you need to repent over.
[SPEAKER_00]: This one, you got a nurture.
[SPEAKER_00]: So not only the creation, but we ourselves grown within ourselves, it says in verse 23, what does that mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: We know that there's something better.
[SPEAKER_00]: that awaits us, which makes us discontent in the best way.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit, at the moment of salvation, comes to dwell in our renewed heart, giving us new desires, desires to love and obey God, never the less.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are not perfected in this life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there still remains this unredeemed part of us that longs and loves the wrong things.
[SPEAKER_00]: So therefore, there's a battleground right here.
[SPEAKER_00]: every week.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are in a constant battle to put them to death.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like child, child pains, child birth pains.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have been given the first fruits.
[SPEAKER_00]: Future glory with the indwelling spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know we belong to Him, but we can't escape temptation, sin, and death, not fully.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore we grow, with longing.
[SPEAKER_00]: because we know what it should be, it's like first fruits.
[SPEAKER_00]: I come back to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the first ripe fruit.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the first golden grains of the crop, a prelude to the great harvest.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the hinting of what's to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: The end-dwelling Holy Spirit is that to us, it means that the full adoption, full redemption, is coming because the earnest that the Holy Spirit has been placed within you, believer.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's Ephesians 1, 13, 14, and him, Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: You also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, you believe in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is a guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's future to the praise of his glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are sons adopted children of God, but there are obstructions in the way, so therefore we grown.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, do you remember when you went to an amusement park and there was a height requirement to some of the rides and you didn't quite make it that year?
[SPEAKER_00]: Ted, I don't think that ever happened to you, but it happened to most of us, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you had to wait a whole year, and did you grown?
[SPEAKER_00]: You grown.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, you wanted to be on that ride?
[SPEAKER_00]: Since we are not home yet, Christian, we are not home yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are not all that we will be, but the spirit promises a lot more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Another illustration of this would be that kind of like a refugee camp, and a refugee camp, you've been rescued from danger.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're living in tents, you're alive, thank God.
[SPEAKER_00]: but you're not home yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're like in a refugee camp.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not home yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we need to long and lean into eternity.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I call it holy discontentment.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the most discontentment.
[SPEAKER_00]: You should repent over this one, nurture it.
[SPEAKER_00]: because you are made for another world so holy discontentment.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are to stop trying to find paradise here on earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will not find it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stop being surprised with broken relationships, pain and suffering.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to happen as long as the king delays.
[SPEAKER_00]: When the king comes,
[SPEAKER_00]: things are going to be completed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stop preserving yourself for more and more recreation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get on mission for the kingdom come.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's how you long for the completion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Give yourself to the mission of the church and prepare for the kings arrival because the deepest longing of your heart
[SPEAKER_00]: with full redemption of our bodies, full adoption, the restoration of all creation, and it's coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: The suffering we experience, pauses,
[SPEAKER_00]: can't even compare to the glories that await.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's a really hard for us to even fathom.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because in this world, there's so many great things to experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: Love, life, thrilling experiences, getting outside and in creation, all of those are great, but we have to remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's something greater.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we as believers, we have the promise of the Holy Spirit that pushes us forward, makes us long for the completion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we have a little foretaste of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, bring it to completion.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm not fighting over and I sin in my past experiences.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be fully redeemed, fully redeemed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lastly, what is the glorious that await?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's 24 and 25.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the hope of the glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: That hope of glory should sustain us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of like when you know, you're going to be going to a pro football game, and there's a couple of weeks out.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're long, and you can't wait to get there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or you can't wait to, you know, whatever you like to do and there's a vacation you're going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's an anticipation.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is that glory that we're supposed to anticipate?
[SPEAKER_00]: It says something about it in 24 and 25 that for in this hope, hope of glory, we were saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now hope that is seen as not hope for who hopes for what he sees, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with patience.
[SPEAKER_00]: The hope of glory sustains us.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a future aspect of faith that we call hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God will complete what He started in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will redeem us fully.
[SPEAKER_00]: And biblical hope is not like, oh, I hope, I hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not the way we use it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a certainty of future fulfillment.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the way the Bible uses the word hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can patiently wait as we suffer because we hope for the glory to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what is that glory?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, three of the four that I, I'm gonna mention are in our passage.
[SPEAKER_00]: The glory of resurrected bodies, that's coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where our bodies will be beautiful, they'll be strong, they will be perfectly in sync with the desires that the Holy Spirit gave us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not gonna be in contrary emotions.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not gonna be in this constant battle that all gonna be aligned with this perfect body.
[SPEAKER_00]: Praise the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the glory of adoption fully realized.
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: and you realize how important that is.
[SPEAKER_00]: How much internal confusion and consternation we have because do we feel loved?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are we loved?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did he kick us out?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's this constant war within us.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there'll be no more doubting, no more second guessing, no more insecurities to fight with.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll be fully loved, fully embraced, fully held.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what adoption will be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, we know the concept, we're gonna be smothered by it, then.
[SPEAKER_00]: The glory of a renewed creation, all of us again, love the beauty of spring.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's hard to imagine that it's under a curse.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's this beautiful, and it's under a curse.
[SPEAKER_00]: When the curse is lifted, we'll see the glory of a renewed creation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the final one, which is not spoken of here, but all of them lean against it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the glory of the abitific vision.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what is called the vision of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is the final apex of everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: We get to see God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Created order is one thing, but when you see that create or that's everything, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the glory of God is the apex of everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the true longing of our souls underneath all the longings is for God Himself and He will give it to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will see that glory and it will satisfy us for all eternity.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are God's children at the moment of faith, just like children are children at the moment of conception, though you wait nine months.
[SPEAKER_00]: When my granddaughter Colette was conceived, she was at that moment, a genuine child of the Durk's family, though we had to wait nine months, and there was discomfort through pregnancy.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that man, the baby was coming, and then when the contractions hit, you knew it was coming very, very, very soon.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, none of the suffering could compare with the joy of having collet in Megan's arms, having a baby in your arms.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I make this illustration?
[SPEAKER_00]: Christian, we are presently in the dark womb of this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the bright light is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: The glory is coming, and it will blow us all the way, your redemption, full redemption draws nigh.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think of 1 Corinthians 2-9, what no I have seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's coming, your full redemption is coming, which you buy your heads.